Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

ABER-RUTHVEN
Aber-Ruthven. See Aberuthven.
Abertarf, a parish, with the seat of a presbytery, in
the centre of Inverness-shire. The parish, named from
the mouth of the Tarf rivulet, which enters the head of
Loch Ness at Fort Augustus, lies principally on the
NW side of Loch Ness, and formerly comprised also the
district of Glenmoriston, but is now united to the parish
of Boleskine. The presbytery of Abertarf, in the synod
of Glenelg, comprehends the old parishes of Boleskine,
Abertarf, Kilmalie, Kilmonivaig, Laggan, and Urquhart,
and the quoad sacra parishes of Glengarry, Duncans-
burgh, and Ballachulish and Corran-of-Ardgour. Pop.
(1871) 11,370, of whom 470 were communicants in 1878,
when the above congregations raised £190 in Christian
liberality. The Free Church also has a presbytery of
Abertarf, whose churches of Ballachulish, Fort Augustus,
Fort "William, Glen Urquhart, Kilmalie, and Kilmoni-
vaig, had 1723 members in 1880.
Aberuchill, an estate, with a modern mansion, in
Comrie parish, Perthshire, 1| mile SW of Comrie. A
castle here, built in 1602, was long a centre of strife be-
tween the Campbells and the Maegregors ; is a high
square structure ; and stands adjoined to the modern
mansion.
Aberuthven (Gael. abhir-ruadJi-abhuinn, ' confluence
of the red river '), a post office village in the north of
Auchterarder parish, SE Perthshire, stands on the right
bank of Ruthven Water, 1J mile S of its influx to the
Earn, and is 2J miles SW of Dunning station, and 2|
NE of its post-town, Auchterarder. It has a Free
church (1S51), gas works, an inn, and a public school,
which, with accommodation for 100 children, had (1879)
an average attendance of 66, and a grant of £62, 3s.
Cotton weaving is the staple industry, and cattle fairs
are held on the third Tuesday of April and November.
Across the Ruthven stands the rootless ruin of St Kat-
tan's Chapel, the church of what once formed the
separate parish of Aberuthven, granted in 1200 to Inch-
affeat. Of Norman or First Pointed origin, it retains
a couplet of narrow, ogee-headed, one-light windows, set
widely apart in the E wall, and is the burial place of
the Duncans of Damside and the Grammes of Inchbrakie ;
whilst beside it is the urn-surmounted mausoleum of the
Dukes of Montrose.
Abington, a village in the E of Crawfordjohn parish,
Lanarkshire, standing at SOS feet above sea-level on the
left bank of the Clyde, | mile below the influx of Glen-
gonner Water, and 14 miles SSE of Lanark by road.
A bridge over the Clyde connects it with Abington
station, J mile eastward on the Caledonian ; this station
having a telegraph office, and being 9 miles S by W of
Symington, 43J SW of Edinburgh, and 43$ SE of Glas-
gow. At the village are a Free church, a post office
with money order and savings' bank departments, a
branch of the Commercial Bank of Scotland, an hotel,
and a school, which, with accommodation for 93 children,
had (1S79) an average attendance of 56, and a grant of
£61, 19s. Coursing meetings are held in the vicinity at
which the best dogs of England and Ireland are pitted
against those of the West of Scotland. Abington House
a little S of the village, is a recent erection, the seat of
Sir Thomas Edward Colebrooke of Crawford, fourth
Bart, since 1759 (b. 1813 ; sue. 1838), M.P. for Lanark-
shire and N Lanarkshire (1857-S1), and owner of 29,604
acres in the shire of an annual value of £92S2.
Aboyne, a village and a parish of S Aberdeenshire.
The village, called sometimes Charlestown of Aboyne,
has a station on the Deeside section of the Great North
of Scotland railway, 32$ miles W by S of Aberdeen, and
11 miles E by N of Ballater, and stands at 413 feet
above sea-level, on the left bank of the Dee, here crossed
by a fine suspension bridge (1831), which, 230 feet long
by 14 wide, is gained from the S by two iron-trussed
arches of 50 and 60, and by two stone arches of 20 and
and 30, feet span. This bridge and a predecessor (1828 ;
destroyed by the great flood of 4 Aug. 1829) were erected
by the Earl of Aboyne at a cost of £7000 ; in 1S71 it
was re-constructed by the County Road Trustees. Sur-
rounded by forest uplands, and skirting a large green,
30
ABOYNE
Aboyne is a pretty little place, possessing a post office,
with money order, savings' bank, and telegraph depart-
ments, a branch of the North of Scotland Bank, a good
hotel, a public library and reading-room, and a picturesque
high-roofed school (1874). Its places of worship are a
handsome parish church (1842, 628 sittings), a Gothic
Free church with graceful spire ; and a Roman Catholic
church, St Margaret's (1874, 120 sittings). A burgh of
barony, it holds cattle and horse fairs on the third
Thursday of Jan., Feb., March, April, August, Sept.,
Nov. , and Dec. , on the last Wednesday of June and the
last Friday of July, and on the first Tuesday and
Wednesday of Oct. (old style). Pop. (1841) 260,
(1851) 187.
The present parish comprises the ancient parish of
Glentanner, and hence is often designated the united
parish of Aboyne and Glentanner. It is bounded N by
Logie-Coldstone, E by Kincardine O'Neil and Birse, S
by Lochlee in Forfarshire, and W by Glenmuick. Irre-
gular in outline, it has a length from N to S of from 2 to
8 1 miles, a width from E to W of from 2| to Si miles,
and a land area of 25,265 acres. A small detached por-
tion, called Percie, 1^ mile long by J mile wide, lies
surrounded by Birse, on the left bank of the Feugh, 5J
miles SE of the village and 3 miles S of the nearest point
of the main body of the parish. With the exception of
the lands of Balnacraig, Aboyne proper is all to the left
or N of the Dee, between the burns of Dess on the E and
Dinnet on the W. Its highest summit, Mortlich, rises
upon the northern boundary to 1248 feet above sea-level,
and is crowned by an obelisk and cross of granite 60 feet
high, erected in 186S as a memorial of Charles, tenth
Marquis of Huntly (1792-1863). Lesser eminences are
Balnagowan Hill (S00 feet), Muchricha's Cross (798),
Oldtown (580), and Balnacraig (689). Glentanner ex-
tends from the southern bank of the Dee away to the
Braes of Angus ; and within it, from N to S, are Creag-
na-Slige (1336 feet), Duchery Beg (1485), Baudy Meg
(1602), the Strone (1219), the Hill of Duchery (1824),
Craigmahandle (1878), Little Cockcairn (2044), Cockcaim
(23S7), Gannoch (2396), and the Hill of Cat (2435), the
three last culminating upon the southern or south-
eastern border. The Dee either bounds or intersects
the parish for about 15 miles, descending within this
distance from some 550 feet at Deecastle to 460 at the
mouth of the Dinnet, 397 at the suspension bridge of
Aboyne, and 296 at the Bridge of Potarch. Its principal
affluent is the impetuous Water of Tanner, which, rising
in Glenmuick parish on the south-western slope of Hare
Cairn (2203 feet), takes a north-easterly course of 14
miles to a point § mile above the suspension bridge, and
receives on the way the united Waters of Gairney and
Allachy and the Skinna Burn. It flows through ' a beauti-
ful and richly-wooded glen, between high hills ' — so the
Queen has described Glentanner, up which she drove as far
as Etnach, with the Prince Consort and the Princess Alice,
21 Sept. 1861 (pp. 156, 157 of Journal, ed. 1877).
Glentanner then was 'out of sight of all habitations,' but
this is no longer the case ; its present tenant, W. Cunliffe
Brooks, Esq., M.P., having built at the Bridge of
Tanner an entrance lodge like an old turreted keep,
higher up a verandahed farm-house, with model dairy,
stabling, and kennels, and many a quaint little cottage
besides, all of them planned by Mr G. Truefitt, of Lon-
don. Auld-dinnie Burn, running 4 miles northward on
the boundary with Birse, is the only other noticeable
stream ; in Aboyne proper, are two small sheets of
water — Braeroddach Loch (1 j x 1 fur. ) to the NW, and,
in the Castle policies, the artificial, islet-studded Loch
of Aboyne (3 x 1\ fur. ). Granite, the primitive forma-
tion, varies in hue from whitish-grey to red, the latter
resembling Peterhead granite and taking a fine polish.
Syenitic and ironstone boulders are also common, and
black ferruginous fragments that seem to have been dis-
integrated from rocks higher up the Dee. Glentanner
yields topaz and crystallised quartz (both white and
rose coloured) on the Firmonth, fuller's earth along
Auld-dinnie Burn, impure limestone in small quantities,
and traces of manganese ; whilst peat-mosses on the hills